First published in the Tri Town Transcript, Feb 11, 2019
By Esther C. Baird
Each year, our elementary school participates in the National Geographic Geography Bee. Our two daughters have qualified over the years, and I’ve sat through many. (Six, but who’s counting?) Let me be clear: the questions are insane.
Each year, our elementary school participates in the National Geographic Geography Bee.
Our two daughters have qualified over the years, and I’ve sat through many. (Six, but who’s counting?) Let me be clear: the questions are insane. It always begins easily enough with state capitals, major landmarks, basic continents and ocean location trivia.
But after a few early elimination rounds the questions become … obscure. They delve into mountain ranges in Chile, waterways in Thailand or vegetation in Russia. And then comes the round designed to test the children’s map reading skills with respect to geography.
They are given maps and asked straightforward, if not always easy, questions. Either they know how to read a map legend or they don’t. Either they know how identify major topographical features or they don’t. The questions are objective and test actual map reading skills.
Until this year.
This year our headmaster announced a change. “Well boys and girls, for the first time ever, there is a ‘Community Impact Question’ to test your thinking as it relates to the map. I will ask it, and we’ll see how it goes!”
Spoiler alert: it did not go well.
The kids, including our sixth-grade daughter, were given a map of an imaginary town, GeoVille, and told the town wanted to plant a community garden so that the residents could have fresh fruits and vegetables. There were four regions in the town, and they had to select which one represented the best location for the garden.
I whispered to the mom next to me, “there must be poison swamps in three of the quadrants and a lovely field in the fourth, otherwise it’s just a matter of opinion.”
But that was not the case. The headmaster was required to show us the map and there were no poison swamps.
Instead GeoVille sat on a river that ran along its south side. It had a park in the middle full of bike paths and the town school just below it. There were residential areas to the east, factories and stores to the west, and a grove of trees to the north.
Um?
The headmaster gave a bemused smile, “well! What a question! This seems a little subjective, but the GeoBee says there is only one right answer.”
I whispered, “I’d skip a garden and just go to Stop and Shop, is that the right answer?” It wasn’t.
The GeoVille park and school section looked to have sidewalks and a space for say, community gatherings, dog walking and sports, plus of course the school. Who wanted to eat carrots grown next to the soccer field porta potties or the carpool lane?
The residential area had no open space unless they razed a few homes. “Sorry about your homes GeoVille people, but here are some fresh turnips!” I mean, that would be impactful…
There was of course the small grove to the north. Could they chop down some trees to plant the garden? How very anti-Lorax, surely the GeoBee people couldn’t mean that.
I decided the answer was on top of the stores and factories in an eco-friendly rooftop project. Never mind that the townspeople would all glow in the dark from the factory-smoke infused veggies. All the better for playing freeze tag at night in the park!
Most of the kids, including my daughter, chose the tree grove. Wrong answer! Scratch community impact off your future career goals, kids! The correct answer, as decided by the GeoGods, was the bottom of the park by the school. Why? Well, obviously (or you know, not obviously), the park was near the river (apparently the forest full of living trees had no access to water). The park was also near to where people would be (because it was their only park, good luck with the new leash laws they’d need) and lastly, the park had southern exposure (if the map represented the entire world and the southernmost place on the planet was at the bottom of the 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper).
Sorry GeoVille, you lost part of your park, but you gained fresh fruit and veggies! Though if GeoVille was in New England, and fruit was a requirement, my bet would be on apples given they actually grow up here. And, just a thought, but an apple orchard might grow nicely in the location already proven to support trees.
The kids who got it wrong and also had their second incorrect answer were eliminated. How’s that for an impact?
After a few more actual objective rounds that were full of unpronounceable places, our daughter and one other student were left. The final question had to do with the population of Scandinavia… I was sure the answer was Norway, but thankfully my daughter knew it was Sweden, and she won.
As she stepped off the stage her class mobbed her. They hugged her in a group of smiling faces, laughter and cheers. I managed to get a photo of her smiling from under the arms and fist pumps of her classmates.
Her victory was a victory for the whole sixth grade. They were her community. And better than any imaginary ill-placed garden, the impact of her class community was real, it was measurable and objective, and … it was right here on the North Shore of Boston.